Many are familiar with the image of a little lamp hoping across the screen and stomping over the “i” of Pixar in the beginning and end of every one of their films. This little lamp is named Luxo Jr. and is both the star and name of Pixar’s first ever animated short film. It features Luxo Jr. playing with the famous Pixar ball, yellow with a blue stripe and red star, as Luxo Sr. observes nearby. In Luxo Jr.’s over excitement and constant jumping, it accidentally deflates the ball. Disappointed but not for long, it finds a larger ball to play with as Luxo Sr. looks on, shaking its head.
Luxo Jr. is more important than people realize, having paved the way to Pixar’s greatness. According to Ed Catmull, one of the founders of Pixar, this 2 minute short film helped change people’s perception of computer animation, taking it from a job jeopardizing technology to a tool used to artistically broaden animation as a whole (Streetuhm). Little Luxo made quite an impact when it was released and brought a new depth of realism and emotion to animated film. Becoming “the first computer-animated film that enabled viewers to forget they were watching computer animation.” (Price, 92) Because of Luxo Jr.‘s success, Pixar became a household name and the lamp has taken its well deserved place as the company’s trademark. Ever since Luxo Jr., Pixar has been a major player in the animation industry, releasing films like the ground breaking Toy Story to the most recent Monsters University. With every new movie they produce they have tirelessly pushed their boundaries, resulting with award winning films that find its way to the heart of its viewers. But most importantly it is the continuous evolution of Pixar allows it to sustain its position as a pionee...
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...roke barriers, leading the firm in creating the first CGI feature film that brought animation to new levels of realism visually and emotionally, captivating audiences unlike any previous animated film.
After a little over 25 years of existence, Pixar has become synonymous with great computer animation. From early on in their career they took the industry by storm by elevating the technology into a legitimate creative medium. They have been a success ever since because they found the perfect balance between the technical and artistic aspect of filmmaking. Pixar took cartoons and transformed it into an art form that brought to life real characters and emotion that touched the hearts of an audience of all ages, while keeping the magic of animation alive. For Pixar’s Craig Good was right, at the end of the day “the story is king.” (Capodagli and Jackson 137)
To date, Warner Bro’s has over 6,500 feature films and around 3,000 television series that contains more than 10,000 episodes (“Company” par 5). Every great movie company has a background story to their success. What were then four brothers traveling with a movie projector turned into a successful movie company that has entertained crowds for generations (“Company” par 7). The vitaphone, the talkie, and the first four-legged movie star were introduced during the 1920’s, and helped define the Warner Brother company (Company par 6). Warner Brothers, a company created by four brothers during the 1920’s, revolutionized the film industry by modernizing the concept of cinematography (Company par 6).
In the 1980’s animation hit it peak with feature films, animated television, commercial that was paying very well, bands, and music videos. Stop motion animation was being the star in animation. Cable television shows would hire stop-motion animators to create their logo entirely with stop-motion animations, one network that did this was MTV. Also, some music videos would be completely done with stop-motion animation. Stop motion animation was almost used everywhere. Will Vinton created an animation studio that would produce the most iconic character today like the stop motion of Noid and the California Raisins made in clay for a commercial. These characters would become bigger than the brands they were to promote. “ Films such as Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Dragon Slayer, and Robocop would be filled with stop-motion visual effects to the point that the lines between reality and the imagined were so well blurred, many people thought it just couldn’t get any
Twenty-six years after the release of Pixar’s first short, Teddy Newton’s “Day and Night,” Pixar’s thirteenth short, was released. Released in 2010, the six-minute short shows the animated story of two creatures known as “Day” and “Night” finally meeting and the clear differences between the two. “Day and Night” uses exemplary animation to demonstrate the emotional expressions and prejudices of two contrasting people coming together and
Pixar is one of the most well-known children’s animation studios of this generation. This all famed animation company only has a short history, considering it just became an independent company in the year 1986. Twenty-eight is not a long time for a company but Pixar has made the best of it, with many award winning featured films and short films. The animation process has gotten easier with the help of their new high-quality technological animation machine, RenderMan.
Hayao Miyazaki’s body of work reflects how commercial animation can be mesmerizing, inspiring and empowering even without the use of the usual formula for animation that we see in most commercial animated features.
In society today, we are conditioned to believe certain sets of ideals. We use these ideals to interact and get along with the other people we surround ourselves with. These ideals are often the societal norms that form common ground amongst individuals. However, living life based off these basic and unchanging beliefs is not beneficial to humanity, nor does it make life any easier to live. In fact, holding on to the most accepted beliefs holds back society as a whole. Judith Halberstam, in her essay “Animating Revolt and Revolting Animation” challenges these societal norms through the analysis of animated movies and, in doing so, carves a path for a new way of thinking.
Thomas, Frank, and Ollie Johnston. Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life. New York: Abbeville Press, 2009.
The book introduces the audience first to the Disney Universe, which gives a broad perspective of how the idea of Disney was created, what Disney has done for the world, and how people around the world feel about this company. The fans of this company, which created the culture, of course fell in love with everything Disney, from the characters to the theme parks. The company has shaped entertainment for the world, creating new forms of entertainment including animations, children movies, colored films, and musical movies. These forms of entertainment have brought joy in some shape or form to their fans. The book introduces the audience to the examination of the history behind Disney, including how it all started and some major complications the company had to overcome. Some of the complications included money problems, work space issues, introducing the company in a way they will be accepted by the common world. In the book, Wasko also includes how Disney cartoons, stories, films and television programs were created. This book also goes into great detail how people around the world receive merchandise or Disney
Everybody associates Disney with happiness, pure innocence, hope, and optimism. All the Disney movies apparently revolve around the common theme of joy, brightness, and victory of good over bad. They usually follow the stereotypical formula, where there is a clear distinction between evil and noble. The hero and heroines are pleasant and attractive, while the villains are quite ugly. One look at the characters would enable the audience to know who belong to which side. In the last few years Disney has started to make conspicuous efforts to break their pattern and explore new qualities and styles. Any animation movie lover would know that Disney has always discreetly avoided
“Another fairytale movie is out,” you inwardly groan as your kids jump up and down begging to see it. There’s nothing wrong with them, its just that they are always the same: a perfect man finds a perfect woman and they live happily ever after in lala land, if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. This is not the case with DreamWorks’ new film: Shrek. Yes it starts off “once upon a time” and may even end with “they lived happily ever after,” but the characters are lovable in a whole new way, not just for their charm and exceptional looks; the theme of the movie teaches great life lessons that every child and adult should know and the soundtrack is the phenomenal icing on top of the cake.
The success that Ed Catmull has brought his company is due to strategic planning. Distinctive competencies shape the strategies that PIXAR followed, which lead to competitive advantage and superior profitability. Innovation was fearless by trusting in teams or, by creating great teams of people, and moving them from project to project rather then
The widely popular film Shrek, produced and distributed by DreamWorks in 2001, grossed a total of $484,409,218 in worldwide sales (Box Office Mojo). The success of the film has led DreamWorks to create several shorts, companion films, and sequels. From its memorable characters to its whimsical, edgy humor, Shrek was an amazing, highly successful animation that would pave the way for DreamWorks to make billions off the franchise. Shrek’s success can be attributed to three main factors: the range of ages it appeals to, its creative use of intertextuality, and its ability to cover a wide range of the fairy tale functions proposed by Vladimir Propp.
Walt Disney himself once said that he does “[...] not make films primarily for children [...].” Therefore, his ...
When one thinks about the cartoons of the past, like TigerSharks, ThunderCats, and G.I. Joe, one will remember the rich story lines, the wild character profiles, and the inspiring battle cries of "Yo Joe" and "Thunder, Thunder, ThunderCats, Ho!!" With technology changing every day, a new form of animation has arisen. This new form is called "Japanimation" or "Anime." It is slowly becoming a part of this culture just as much as hamburgers and pizza. It still has a long way to go, but it is slowly creeping into the American genre of animation.
Did you know that Walt Disney made a cartoon that a lot of people still remember it’s Alice in Cartoonland in that time it was a success for people. In that time he didn’t imagine that by doing something he loves and enjoys he would win a lot of money. After this Disney decided to make another serie he had already invented the most famous mouse in the world “Mickey Mouse”. The first Studios that they make was The Disney Bross Studios. Former Universal and Disney decided to make an agreement to animate cartoons by using the Powers’ Cinephone sound process. Silly Symphony was another huge success for Disney. Years later he start to see all the success that all of his cartoons had so he decided to make all of those characters real and there is when he decided to build “Disney World.” Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full-length animated film that was reproduced on December 21, 1937 in Los Angeles it produced an unimaginable $1.499 million and it won eight Oscars even in the spite of the Depression he was